The Style Evolution of the White Tee Shirt

The white tee: I can’t imagine life without it. As a child a white tee was easy and went with everything, and as an adult woman a white tee and jeans remains one of the easily sexy outfits I wear. It’s hard to imagine that before I was born, women only wore white tee shirts to bed or maybe after being stolen from their husband or brother’s closet, to work in the garden. Nowadays the white tee shirt is a classic, chic item worn by everyone from hip hop stars to the departed Princess Diana.

White Tee Shirts Style History

In the 1970’s, Hanes began producing the white tee shirt to be worn as outerwear after realizing that others were screen-printing and selling their products. Women went from wearing tees at home to wearing them everywhere, as the hippie movement caught fire. White tee shirts took a backseat for a while as tye-dye and message tees took over, but inevitably the superb simplicity of a white tee rose to the top.

Jackie O, the ultimate style icon, famously wore a white tee shirt in public in the 70’s to shoot photos as she herself was caught by the camera: